Wednesday, April 28, 2010

At Rolex 2008, Bob (my husband) witnessed The Quiet Man's fatal fall in the cross country phase. It was an upsetting experience, and understandably he didn't return to Rolex in 2009. This year I opted to drive rather than fly, and Bob kindly made the ten hour trip with me. On Saturday, the cross-country day, Bob accompanied me to the grounds but he had no interest in watching horses jump. Fortunately, he likes watching the riders gallop away from the obstacles, especially when the horses get a big pat and praise. He positioned himself accordingly, just after the jumps, and captured footage on the Flip camera. At my request, though, he videotaped Lauren Kieffer and Snooze Alarm as they negotiated the Head of the Lake...

On Sunday (show jumping day), Bob stood near where horses and riders entered the ring. He enjoyed watching their final preparations behind the scenes. Me? I took footage of the actual rides :-). Here is Arthur (chestnut, rider Allison Springer), who is probably my favorite horse this year, and Napalm (grey, rider Ian Roberts). Ian is so been-there-done-that, he is fun to watch too.

5 comments:

Interesting. Arthur made a little mis-stride at the third to last fence but went anyway, jumping beautifully. He made the fences look easy. Napalm made the fences look harder, mostly, I think because he was trying to be more "go-ey" and the striding was almost too short for him. Big move on the second to last fence, though. They took off almost a stride early the approach was so long.

What fun to see the horses still fit and energetic like that on the final day. Both of them looked ready to do another round of cross country.

and as for the 2008 Bob's experience of the fatal fall, I imagine he didn't return right away, it took me over 5 years to get over the double fatal fall of both a rider and his horse I witnessed in the most difficult European continental steeple race - Great Pardubice (even successful Great Liverpool horses hardly ever finish it)...even nowadays my heart is racing & I can barely breathe watching an event or a steeple...I just need to keep reminding myself about how beautiful it is to watch & that accidents like this do not happen every day...

look for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az81uQBbjyw on you tube if you'd like to see the race from last year...

I warn you - the language will be sounding very funny :o), but it'll be worth watching...